The snow was heavy going and the clankers, with their broad footplates installed, could make no better time than a slow march. They were plagued with freezing oil and breakdowns, which Nish and Tuniz were called upon to fix. Nish discovered just how much he loathed his trade. He always ended up with bloody, frozen fingers and his father's curses ringing in his ears. Every operation was ten times as difficult as it had been in the workshop. Even unflappable Tuniz was heard to swear on occasion.
It was not windy, but intensely cold, especially in the clear nights. On the third afternoon a blizzard blasted down on them. They could not move at all the following day, and the fifth brought wind to whirl the fresh snow up into clouds. They struggled on, slower and slower, and finally the clankers shuddered to a stop.
'What is it?' screamed Jal-Nish. He had to scream to be heard over the wind. Everyone gathered behind the clankers.
'Field's too weak,' said Simmo from the second machine. 'We've been running on the flywheels for the last quarter-hour but they've run down.'
'Does that mean we're stuck here? Incompetent fools!'
'There's another node ahead, surr, and it's a strong one, but we're having trouble drawing from its field. It's strange, perquisitor, surr. I've never seen anything like it.'
'What do you mean?'
Simmo conferred with the other operators before answering. 'Seems to be a double node. We've never come across such a thing before. We can't work it out.'
'Then get the artisan to show you. That's what's she's here for. Artisan Irisis, get over here.'
Irisis froze, her guts churning. This was it. She was going to be exposed. She would never fool Jal-Nish. Looking despairingly around the circle of pinched faces, she caught Nish's eyes on her. He was stricken.
She assumed her famous arrogant expression. At least she would go down fighting, and when the worst did happen she would take the perquisitor with her. Clutching her pliance, Irisis strode forward.
'I expect I'll have to modify the controllers,' she said.
'How long will that take?'
'As long as it takes, surr. We can't take risks up here.'
'Get on with it.'
Climbing into the clanker, Irisis began to pull the controller apart. Ky-Ara crouched beside her, watching her every move as if she was operating on his own child. He whimpered as she removed each controller arm. It was hard to concentrate.
'Ky-Ara,' she said pleasantly, 'would you be so kind as to bring the other controllers here?'
He went reluctantly, with many a backward glance from those liquid eyes.
'Nish!' Irisis called. Nish came out of the huddle. 'Stand guard on the hatch and don't let anyone through.'
'What about Ky-Ara?'
'Especially not that whimpering fool. Or your father.'
Ullii came trailing up behind Nish, thrust her head under his arm and peered in through her goggles. Nish indicated her with an inclination of the head.
'Come in, Ullii!' snapped Irisis. 'But don't say anything, all right?'
Creeping in, Ullii sat down in her seat.
Irisis worked steadily for an hour or so, visualising the strange double node with her pliance and trying to tune Ky-Ara's controller to the field. In spite of the cold she began to sweat. The double node was the strangest she'd ever encountered, a large glowing globe and a smaller one, orbiting each other. Orange mist whirled around and between the two, flowing from one to the other and emitting occasional bright pulses. It disturbed her, and when she tried to visualise the associated field her brain hurt, the way her nose did when she caught a breath of pitch smoke. There was something noxious about this field. It fluctuated from weak to strong more quickly than her defences could cope.
Irisis pulled away, her heart pounding. Something was very wrong. Even if she could tune the controllers to the node, she was afraid what would happen when she did.
Someone rapped on the back hatch. 'What's going on?' came Jal-Nish's cry.
'Don't let him in, Nish.'
The hatch was jerked open. 'Well, artisan?'
'It's proving unexpectedly difficult.'
'Why?' There was a dangerous glint in Jal-Nish's eye.
'I've never worked with a double node before and I don't think anyone else has either. If I get it wrong it may burn out the hedron and the clanker will be stuck here for the winter.'
'Bah! Fyn-Mah always said you were a fraud.' After some hours Irisis had worked out how to tune the controller to the field, though she had no idea if it would be able to cope with the dangerous fluctuations in intensity. She could not do the test herself, since she lacked the ability to draw power from the field. Irisis planned to have Ky-Ara do it. It was the only way she could think of to escape her fate. But if he refused…
Ky-Ara was eager to help. He would have agreed to anything to get her out of his seat. Irisis had been counting on that. It was the reason she had done his controller first. The other operators were tougher.
She was sitting beside Ky-Ara, explaining what to do, when Jal-Nish heaved Nish out of the way and pushed through to the front of the clanker.
'What do you think you're doing?' he snapped.
'I…' A shiver went up her spine. 'I'm showing Ky-Ara how to carry out the test.'
'Be damned! That's artisan's work. I wouldn't risk an operator on it if I had a dozen to spare.'
'But he's the one…' she began desperately.
'Never! I can lose you, if it goes wrong. I can't lose him.'
Irisis swallowed. 'Then I'll need him to help.'
'You'll do it on your own, artisan. What's the problem? You were acting crafter a few weeks ago. You must have done this a thousand times.'
'It's just… not this kind of node,' she said, almost inaudibly. Irisis glanced at Nish as if for help, but he was looking down, picking ice off his boots. Well, this is it, she thought. My nightmare has come at last. If I could do it, I'd pull so much power from the field that it would blow the clanker apart and anthracise everyone in it. The apocalypse had a violent appeal, but it was just a dream.
'Very well,' she went on. 'Everyone must stand well back, in case something goes wrong. I don't think this kind of node has ever been used before.'
'Just get it done,' said Jal-Nish. 'If you can.'
Was this a malicious game, she thought, to humiliate her in front of everyone? It was just the kind of revenge the perquisitor would go for.
Jal-Nish took her advice and moved a long way from the clanker. The querist remained where she was. Did she do that to mock Irisis?
'You'd better go too,' Irisis said to Ullii and Nish. Nish did not meet her eyes, as if trying to distance himself from the humiliation to come. She could not blame him.
He stayed, though, and Ullii did too, which was surprising. Or perhaps Ullii knew there was no danger at all. Irisis began, using the controller to sense out the fluctuating field. It was so much stronger than using her pliance. It had to be, to drive the massive weight of a clanker.
Allowing those baleful globes to orbit freely in her mind, but keeping well away, Irisis concentrated on the spirals of mist that whirled between them. She was searching for one that was strong but not too strong. Her missing talent might come back.
She passed by one, then a second, a third. The eyes of Nish and Ullii never left her face. Irisis imagined what was to come. Utter humiliation. Jal-Nish would not dispose of her here – her abilities could be needed on the way home – but once back at the manufactory he would make a public spectacle of her. Chroniclers and tellers would be imported from a hundred leagues to spread the tale of her downfall and to describe, in loving detail, her fitting punishment.
'Hurry up, artisan.' The perquisitor had his head in through the back hatch.